Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28693
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from a sunny but chilly Vega Baja. I’m pretty sure this is a RayT production but unusually for him we have five straight anagrams and another three clues which use anagrams as part of further wordplay. If you can crack the two long ones across the middle you’ll get enough checkers to really get you going. Those of you with repetition radar will note that there are three instances of the use of the word ONE to indicate the letter I. Whatever, I enjoyed the puzzle and hope that you did too.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28681
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where the rain has just stopped and the sun’s trying to appear. Looks as though Spring might have sprung around here as we’re forecast 22°C this afternoon. I’m not sure about the setter of this one. It has some of the hallmarks of a RayT but it didn’t really feel like one of his so I’ll leave it up to you to make up your own minds. It was quite a pleasant solve while it lasted but that wasn’t for long and it would have been a clear * difficulty if it hadn’t been for 3d where the word meaning “taken for granted” stubbornly refused to reveal himself.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28657
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. I’m pretty sure this is a RayT production but it’s very much at the benign end of his spectrum. It would have been only * difficulty had I not seemed to run into some speed humps in the SE corner. Still, it fell nicely after a brief struggle so ** it is. There again, perhaps I was just on the wavelength this morning and it really is a tricky little rascal. I’ll interested to see what you all made of it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28639
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Morning all from a rather cold but sunny Vega Baja. I was put off this puzzle when I saw the terrible grid which gives you four separate crosswords, only linked by the four 10-letter lights in the centre. The grid coupled with a bit more difficulty than in recent puzzles makes things a bit tricky but fortunately there are enough gimmes to give you a start in each corner so I think most of you will be OK. I’ll be interested to see if anyone agrees with me.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28610
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Morning all. Last week Kath mentioned that we haven’t had a RayT offering for a while but he’s back today with all the usual quirks. Her Majesty turns up promptly in 1a, there’s some repeated sex and suggestive leering, a couple of lurkers and a first letters clue along with some slightly iffy synonyms. Unusually there are a couple of long anagrams to give plenty of checkers and get you going. I enjoyed the puzzle and I’ll be interested to hear what you all thought of it. Continue reading “DT 28610”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28598
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Morning all from a rather dank and dismal Vega Baja. Winter has certainly arrived at last. I haven’t a clue who today’s setter is as the style doesn’t ring any bells at all. There’s four longish anagrams to give you a way in, a couple of rather complicated charades and three cryptic definitions. While solving I thought it was a bit tricky but looking at the website’s timer it’s a solid ** puzzle. Perhaps I was just lucky in unravelling the anagrams fairly quickly. Continue reading “DT 28598”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28580
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Morning all and welcome to what is definitely not a RayThursday. I have no idea who the setter might be but it’s certainly not RayT and it won’t be Shamus as he’s in the Toughie slot today. The anagram lovers among you will be well pleased as I count eight of the clues being all or partial anagrams.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28562
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Morning all and welcome to Thursday’s crossie. I’m pretty sure that it’s not a RayT and I have an idea who it might be, not least because it’s a pangram, but with my record of setter spotting that’s as far as I’m going. It’s the first pangram we’ve had on my watch for ages but I twigged the possibility of one far too late for it to be of any help in the solving.
I thought it was going to be a breeze as I got eleven of the acrosses and eight of the downs on first pass. Then it was a bit like finding speed humps on the M6 and I ground to a bit of a halt. Last two in were the interlocking 23a and 19d and I must have stared at them for as long as the rest of the puzzle had taken before the penny finally dropped on 23a with a very loud clang – tea-tray moment or what? A most enjoyable puzzle for me and I’ll be interested to hear your views on it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28550
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Morning all and welcome to a RayThursday. I thought this was going to be pretty easy when I got eight of the acrosses on first pass but then I only got eight of the downs, even with the checkers in place. It was well into *** time by the time the rest had revealed themselves. For me the enjoyment level was its usual high but I bet we’ll have some disagreement about that.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28526
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Morning all and welcome to RayThursday and a rather violent thunderstorm. Yep, throwing it down here which is certainly not in this weather forecast https://www.eltiempo.es/almoradi.html .
Anyway, to the puzzle. I quite enjoyed it but I won’t be at all surprised if some of you complain about stretched synonyms and generally being on a different wavelength. I’ve gone for ** difficulty because I found the left hand side pretty straightforward (*) but the right hand side fairly tricky (***) so on average ** it is. Was it just me or did others find it so as well?
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